BREIN Is Targeting Pirate Media Player Vendors

The European Court of Justice has recently ruled that TV boxes can infringe copyright if they are shipped loaded with pirating software. The Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN was quick to use this decision and pressure pirate media player vendors to cease their sales or risk tens of thousands of euros in fines.

The group highlights that the media players themselves can still be sold, and the Kodi software is legal as well, but the copyright holders can target sellers who offer devices with pre-loaded pirate add-ons. This is exactly what the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN is doing at the moment. BREIN pointed out that more than 80 vendors have already ceased their sales – half of them stopped before the ruling was announced, and another half followed afterwards. In addition, the agency contacted more than 50 vendors after the court order and 2/3 of them did indeed stop. BREIN then filed complaints against a dozen sellers of which one has halted its sales, and 6 others stopped voluntarily.

The group warned all the vendors that in case of offering “fully-loaded” boxes they risk huge fines, because such software is causing major damage to the makers and providers of movies, series, and sports broadcasts. BREIN mentions settlements of tens of thousands of euros. The group promised to monitor offline sales via markets and brick and mortar stores as well, urging all kind of sellers to realize that their activity is punishable as a crime. BREIN pledged to ensure that such kind of crime does not pay.

Although the efforts and threats of the anti-piracy group do have an effect, there are still a lot of sellers who continue to ship “fully-loaded” devices, so the BREIN’s hunt is likely to continue for a while.